Last week, we went to our first Guide Dogs family event at the Black Country Living Museum. Not many people know that besides training guide dogs (or buddy dogs like Mabel), Guide Dogs also help children with mobility access, technology support and many more.
In the past, they have provided help for my daughter with technology support and with a buddy dog. Now I am volunteering to fundraise for the Sutton Coldfield branch and also as a sighted guide. I have been matched with a guide dog owner and I support her for at least an hour a week.
As I’m sure you’ve seen on the news lately, Birmingham is currently cutting a lot of services (due to bankruptcy), we have to look for help from elsewhere and Guide Dogs may be able to provide some support. Also, in some rural areas, they do not have mobility officers from the council, but Guide Dogs are happy to support visually impaired persons of all ages.
Back to the Black Country Living Museum – we were asked to arrive as early as 9am at the location as they were expecting over 700 scouts coming to visit on that day. We settled ourselves in and learned more about their services and how we can get help through them.
This was our first time visiting Black Country Living Museum and it is quite easy to find. It is an open-air museum of rebuilt historic buildings in Dudley. The place was amazing and it will make a great family day out.
We would recommend you visit the Drift Mine tour. The tour starts at 11.30am and can only accommodate 25 people for each tour. If you miss the tour, you will have to wait for 15 to 30 minutes for the next tour. It is worth waiting though. You will be provided a helmet as there are many low walls and each group will get a torch. The torch is very dim as it is designed to mimic candlelight. It is very dark down the mine, hence it might not be suitable for anyone scared of the dark or suffering from claustrophobia.
Around the town, each shop has workers dressed in 1920s outfits and some shops sell items like cakes, sweets, pies and drinks. Some of the shops display items from the 19th century. For wheelchair users, a ramp will be provided to enter their shop.
The place is very well-kept and vast. You can spend a long time admiring the items in the shops. I found the toothbrush in the chemist fascinating. It is made from bone and pig hair!
You can also take a short ride on their bus instead of walking. My daughter was very excited, especially as we managed to grab the front top seat of this red vintage London double-decker bus! The last time that I took this type of bus was 20 years ago! I did try to press the bell, but all the buttons didn’t work on the bus.
You can also experience a school lesson at St. James’ school. The tour starts at 11am and lasts for 15 minutes for each lesson. We had a look at the door and did a U-turn back. No school for us on a Saturday morning! Filming or video are prohibited at the school.
Another shop worth going to is the Hobb’s and Sons Fish & Chip shop at location 41. This shop only sells chips and they are cooked the old-fashioned way in beef dripping. You can ask for Vegan or Gluten Free chips. The queue can be insanely long as many people don’t realise that they only sell chips and no fish. The chips tasted delicious, especially in this cold and wet season.
They do have a blacksmith show and other shows at different times. It is worth checking their notice board for timings. They also have black and white movies showing on repeat.
This was a lovely place to visit and well worth going. I would definitely recommend it.